Gia Coppola‘s debut film Palo Alto premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and David Ehrlich called it “one of the best movies ever made about high school life in America”. I tend to disagree with Ehrlich most of the time, but even Todd McCarthy calls it “the best feature film directed by someone named Coppola in a number of years.” The filmmaker, cast (specifically Emma Roberts & James Franco), style and setting definitely have me excited to see this film. The movie is a dark drama that follows a group of teenagers whom, of course, have “a penchant for finding trouble.” Watch the second Palo Alto movie trailer embedded after the jump.

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As James Franco prepares to debut his latest directorial effort, Child of God, at Venice and Toronto, another of his movies is on its way to a Telluride premiere. Palo Alto wasn’t helmed by Franco, but it was based on his short story collection and stars Franco in a key role.

Instead, it’s Gia Coppola (granddaughter of Francis Ford and niece of Sofia and Roman) who directed this drama, which follows several interconnected plotlines in the suburban town of its title. Emma Roberts leads the cast as a teenager who gets romantically involved with her soccer coach (Franco), while Jack Kilmer (son of Val) and Nat Wolff play a pair of troubled kids. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

It can be pretty hard to take Jim Rash seriously when he’s flirting with dalmatians as Dean Pelton on Community, but off-camera he’s enjoying greater success than ever. Rash and Nat Faxon landed Oscars this past February for scripting Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, and have spent most of the year since working on their directorial debut The Way, Way Back.

The project’s history goes back several years. Rash and Faxon’s script landed on the 2007 Black List and briefly had Shawn Levy (Real Steel) attached to helm. When Levy moved on, however, the pair decided to tackle the job themselves. Given their past work, it’s no surprise that they were able to gather a talented and funny cast including Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Amanda Peet, Maya Rudolph, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, and Rob Corddry. With shooting just ended, we now have the first image from the coming-of-age comedy. Check it out after the jump.